Chapter 2.
* * * * *
PHANTOM STRANGER'S P.O.V.
As the erstwhile Superman advanced upon the three of us, Jason Todd (in a manner befitting the title of "Batman") threw Catwoman into my arms. Demanding that I take her out of there, at once.
"I'll keep him busy," he added (the grimness of his promise plain for all to see).
"Noooo!" screamed Catwoman.
But, it was no use. For I immediately teleported the two of us out of there. Rematerializing us within the brownstone mansion of the mysterious Baron Winter (which, at this time, was _not_ located in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC), his "pet" leopard Merlin, and their current house guest, the Black Orchid.
"You. . .! You. . .!"
She sought to think of the worst invectives she could hurl at me. Her grief, however, overpowered her and she collapsed in a sobbing heap to the carpeted floor of the baron's living room. Merlin and Black Orchid immediately converging to care for her. The latter hugging her, most maternally, while the former sought to lick her teardrops away, just as comfortingly.
"Go!" commanded the baron. "We will see to her needs."
I nodded. Yet, as I dematerialized, I flashed back to how this all began.
From the Dark Web auction site, run by the ex-super-villain once known as the Calculator, the radical computer prodigy called Anarky had purchased three items stolen from the confiscated weapons repository run by the top-secret Federal entity code-named the Suicide Squad. A bouquet of narco-hypnotic flowers genetically engineered by Pamela Isley. The latest model of mind-controlling computer chip devised by the Mad Hatter. And a teleportation device for traveling through two-dimensional space (discourtesy of the Glaswegian Mirror Master). By means of the latter, Anarky infiltrated the dressing room of Zatanna at her last performing venue. He then deposited the bouquet of flowers on her vanity table before temporarily departing. Consequently, when the Princess of Prestidigitation came backstage, following the conclusion of her act, she entered the dressing room, saw the flowers, and instantly sniffed the bouquet upon reading the note pinned to the surrounding tissue paper. . .and smiling.
For that note had been signed with the silhouette of a bat.
Second later, she collapsed into her vanity table's matching chair. Completely unconscious! Whereupon, Anarky came back out of the mirror to pick up her top hat (which had naturally fallen to the floor) so he could implant the mind-chip within the hat band!
"When you reawaken, my dear, you will add one other stop to your tour. Gotham City! There, you will occupy the penthouse of the finest hotel. Following which, you will invite Bruce Wayne to have a private candle-lit dinner with you."
There followed several more post-hypnotic instructions. Suffice it to say, she carried each of them out. And when Bruce Wayne arrived on the fateful night, in acceptance of her invitation, she proved a most thoughtful and gracious host. It was only when she asked if he wanted some after-dinner coffee that he noticed something.
"If I didn't know better, I'd swear that coffee pot was the Lamp of Larko."
Zatanna smiled and replied: "Ti si. ecurB, emoceb dezylarap! woN, retne eht okraL pmaL. nehT egrem-er sa ym yldnilb tneidebo. . . taB-inieG!
Two white trails of smoke later, the Dark Knight of Gotham City stood before his new mistress. A red turban surmounting his bat-eared cowl. . .and a trail of gray smoke where his legs had once been.
tbc